


Ghosts, Goblins, and Ghouls ... Oh My!

by maryperk



Series: Oh My [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: BtVS7, F/M, vampTara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-24
Updated: 2014-06-24
Packaged: 2018-02-06 01:35:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1839535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maryperk/pseuds/maryperk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A haunted house on Halloween on the Hellmouth.  Just peachy.  This is a response to Holly's challenge on her LJ community the jossverse.  There were specific requirements including using a movie quote (I got carried away and used them all)  Set in an Altered season 7</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Has anyone seen my bag of candy corn?" Dawn shouted. She was due at Janice's for movies, and she didn't want to be late because of a stupid bag of candy.

In the living room, the Slayer and the vampire looked down at the empty candy bag sitting on the couch between them. Then, they looked up at each other in sudden guilt. Buffy grabbed the bag, and she shoved it under the couch cushions.

"Sure haven't, Nibblet," Spike called out the lie. "Are you sure you bought one?" He gave Buffy a subtle wink when the teenager entered the room.

"Of course, I am!" Dawn grabbed the plastic sack off the coffee table. "I bought them at the same time I got these." She pulled fake vampire teeth out, and she put them in her mouth.

"Very nice." Spike grinned at the girl. "You almost look like the real thing."

"Don't encourage her!" Buffy smacked the vampire on the arm. She turned to look at her sister's vamp costume. Dawn was dressed up almost exactly like Spike; same black jeans, t-shirt, and boots with a red silk dress shirt. The only thing missing was a black duster, but that just wasn't in the budget. "Well, I suppose I should be glad you didn't bleach your hair, Dawnie."

"Are you guys gonna be staying here tonight?" Dawn asked, ignoring Buffy's bleach statement.

"No, we have to check that out that house up on Skald Hill," Buffy muttered. "You know Giles keeps telling us that nothing happens on Halloween." She shook her head in disgust. "Then, every year he has to eat his words."

Dawn gave Buffy and Spike a suspicious look. "What are you guys gonna do at Skald Hill Manor?" She knew there was only one house on Skald Hill that would interest the Scoobies.

"Halloween!" Buffy smiled with fake brightness. "What an excellent day for an exorcism!"

"You didn't tell me this before," Dawn spluttered. She gave both her sister and the vampire a glare that could only be perfected by teenage girls. "I already have plans with Janice. It's no fair!"

"Of course, it's unfair, Bit. That was the plan." Spike gave Dawn an unrepentant smirk. He suddenly gave a small whistle when Willow and Tara entered the living room. "Lookin' good, Red ... and Glinda."

Tara gave the vampire a shy but cheeky grin. She was quite proud of her costume, as she had never worn anything so daring before. She gave a small twirl, and said, "God is dead. Satan lives."

"No, God is still off in Nepal." Willow chuckled as she gave a reference to her ex-boyfriend Oz and the costume that he had wore their last Halloween together. "Besides, you're just a little demon, not Satan."

"Thanks." Tara ducked her head, and she would have blushed if she could.

"I didn't know the exorcism was supposed to be a costume party." Buffy looked down at her usual slaying outfit with a worried look. 

"Oh no, Buffy. It's not." Willow rushed to assure her friend. "We're going to a party afterwards. Couples are to dress in opposites."

Tara nodded as she gave the others a grin. "Normally, I'd dress as the angel and Willow as the devil. She's a bit naughtier than I am." She giggled a little at the statement. "So, we took it a step further, and we dressed opposite of what we'd usually do."

"Well, Spike's right. You both look awesome," Buffy replied before she turned to Spike. "Guess everyone has plans later except us."

"We'll think of something, luv!" The bleached blond vampire wiggled his eyebrows at the Slayer. He wasn't worried about Dawn, Willow, or Tara getting on his case for propositioning the Slayer. He knew of all the Scoobies it was the females, even Anya, that approved of him and Buffy having a relationship.

Spike mentally shook his head. Things had certainly changed over the past few months. He and Buffy had hashed out their differences after the rest of the gang had seen him and Anya getting it on at the Magic Box. However, it had been Buffy's near death experience at the hands of Warren Meers and his gun that had made her change her mind completely about Spike. That... and strangely enough considering all the times she had thrown his soullessness in his face... his giving in to Willow's pleading for him to turn Tara when she too was shot by Warren.

You see, Spike was in Buffy's room sleeping -- after the long hashing session -- when the smell of blood had woken him up. He had refused to do what the redhead had wanted, but then her eyes had turned black. The vampire found himself just a bit scared of Willow in that moment. So, against his better judgment, he turned Tara, making her his first childe. Then, Willow did the spell to return the Wicca's soul. All of the Scoobies were still adjusting to the turn of events.

Spike still didn't know why his turning Tara had helped Buffy accept that he truly loved her, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He was just grateful for another chance with his beautiful Slayer. He made an immediate plan, right then and there, to talk to Tara and Anya about how to make the rest of the Scoobs immortal without vamping them. Well, maybe not Harris, unless his immortal being was something disgusting. Spike skipped into a happy place as he thought of the Whelp being a dung beetle, _and Anyanka's pet,_ for all eternity.

"Spike. Spike." Buffy snapped her fingers in front of the vampire's face. "That smile is wigging me out."

"Sorry, pet." Spike grinned at Buffy. "Just thinking about our first Halloween together," he lied.

"Don't jinx us now!" Willow's eyes widened. "We DO NOT need to turn into our costumes!"

Dawn plopped down on the couch next to the phone. She was about to pick up the receiver when she heard a crinkling from under the cushion. When she checked it out she found the empty candy corn bag. Dawn glared at Buffy in younger sister outrage. "Well, I _was_ gonna call Janice and cancel the movies, but now I don't think I will."

"You're not going with us and that's final," Spike replied. He grabbed his duster from the back of the couch.

"And you! I bet you helped her eat my candy." Dawn included the blond vampire in her glare. She leapt to her feet, and she stomped out of the room, leaving four pole axed people behind her. There was nothing quite like teenage theatrics to start off the night. The front door slammed shut, shaking the house slightly, as Dawn left for her friend's house.

"She's just a little mad sometimes." Buffy laughed nervously, not sure if she meant angry or crazy when she said the word 'mad'. "We all go a little mad. Haven't you?" She turned to Spike. "I think we should hit Wal-mart later and get her some more candy corn."

Spike nodded in agreement before he herded Buffy, Willow, and Tara out of the house. His Nibblet's moods were certainly more volatile lately. Give her a few more years, and she'd be almost as scary as her Big Sister. Gotta love those Summers' women.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Are Xander and Anya going to be there?" Willow asked when the group was almost at Skald Hill. The street was dark, with very few city lamp posts and lots of overhanging trees. It made her glad that Spike had driven them over in the Summers' jeep.

"I'm here." Anya popped into the car, her demonic features plastered on her face. "I have no idea where Xander is. I'm not his keeper." Her eyes darted around, checking out the others, before she lost her game face.

"What's the what, Anya?" Buffy asked. She had begrudgingly forgiven the vengeance demon for the incident with Spike in the Magic Box. It had seemed kind of silly to forgive him but not Anya.

"Oh, well, for awhile I thought Donald Trump was in Sunnydale." Anya looked disgusted with herself. "But, it turned out to be Clem all dressed up."

"Told him it was a great costume," Spike chortled. He pulled up in front of Skald Hill Manor where he parked. The gang got out of the car, and they stood staring up at the mansion.

"There's Xander." Tara pointed to where the male Scooby leaned against his car. "I hope he remembered everything we need for the exorcism."

"Let's go check." Willow pulled Tara over to Xander. A quick check told the magic users that everything was in order. Willow and Tara grabbed the gear, and they followed the others towards the house.

The Scoobies climbed the porch steps, where they were greeted by a dark-haired woman in a long white dress. "Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?" she asked in a breathy voice. "I do! I see them all around me."

"Who ordered the Dru look alike?" Buffy hissed the question out of the side of her mouth. The jolt of jealousy she instantly felt shook her more than she wanted to admit.

"Whatever it is, it's not alive or undead." Spike sniffed the air. "No heartbeat or scent."

"A ghost then?" Buffy peered at the figure. "I refuse to be the one possessed this time. It's someone else's turn."

"The raven was called Sin!" The Dru look alike flung one hand towards the sky. "It flew towards the moon, shrieking my name."

As Anya skirted the ghost, the transparent woman flickered. The vengeance demon tilted her head as she studied the other woman. She wrinkled her nose, and she said, "It's not a ghost exactly. More like a warning to stay away."

"Is it like a hologram?" Xander waved his hand in the spot where Anya had passed the woman, and she flickered again.

"No, she is flickering because she can feel that we're not heeding her words," Anya said. She sent a small message to Buffy via telepathy. _Be mad, Buffy. Then she'll tell us more._

"Is someone pulling our leg?" Buffy growled in sudden anger. She tried to follow Anya's suggestion, but she _did_ have to wonder if someone was pulling a joke on them with the whole exorcism thing.

"You must leave!" The woman acted like she was going to push them down the steps, but her face suddenly changed. She looked terrified as she glanced over her shoulder at the front door of Skald Hill Manor. Her voice dropped to a whisper, "Oh, he's a monster! Pure psychopath. So rare to capture one alive. Then, he died and the real Hell began." In a stark contrast to her earlier words, she continued with a plea for help. "Please help us, or we'll be trapped here forever."

The astonished Scoobies watched as the woman faded from view. Buffy raised an eyebrow before she turned to Willow, and asked, "Anything about psychopaths in your research?"

"N-no," Willow stuttered. "The house was built by William and Elizabeth Jamison..."

"Excuse me?" Spike interrupted the red-haired witch. "Did you say Jamison?"

"Yes. Why?"

"No reason." Spike shrugged carelessly. There was no way he was going to tell anyone, especially the Scoobs -- even the ones that approved of him -- that his human name was William Jamison. Although, this William Jamison could in no way be him, since he had not left England until after he was turned.

"Anyway, as I was saying," Willow continued on after she realized Spike wasn't going to talk anymore. "The house was finished in 1848 by William Jamison for his bride Elizabeth. However both died in late 1851 when on a business trip to San Francisco they were shot coming out of their hotel."

"Ouch," Xander said while he winced.

"There have been quite a few owners over the years but nothing that would indicate a psychopath." Willow shrugged. "The current owner is the one that called me yesterday wanting the exorcism. I believe he's a relative of William and Elizabeth, a great nephew of some kind."

"Well, what about the exorcism?" Buffy asked as she looked up at the huge house. "Are we gonna do one?"

"Maybe we should pack up and just go home," Xander replied. He was perfectly happy to leave and forget about the whole thing. He had a nice bottle of whiskey he wouldn't mind demolishing for the holiday. Things were still pretty shitty for him since he left Anya at the altar. Sure, he hid it well from his friends, and Spike, but there were days when he felt like chucking it all in here in Sunnydale and moving to some small podunk town out in the boonies where they had never heard of demons, vampires, and the Hellmouth.

Tara stared at the front door of Skald Hill Manor. She tilted her head, and she murmured, "I think we should check it out. I'm getting some weird vibes."

"If my baby's feeling the weirdness, I say we check it out." Willow smiled at Tara.

"Let's do this." Buffy pulled her stake from her pocket. She made her way to the frond door where as she was about to knock, it swung open with a creepy squeak. Buffy muttered under her breath, "There will be no fear demons and no poltergeist sex here." Behind her she could hear Spike chuckle.

"No, just us creatures that go bump in the night," Spike whispered in Buffy's ear when he went past her to check to see if Tara and he could even get in the house. He was both pleased and concerned when he found there was no barrier. He stepped inside the house where he sniffed the air, but he didn't smell anything. He waved the others to join him, and even he was startled when the door slammed shut behind them.

"It's the wind, right?" Xander asked in a quiet voice. He breathed a sigh of relief when he checked the door and it opened quite easily. "Nothing to worry about as long as the door opens."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The Scoobies found themselves in a grand foyer. In front of hem was a huge curving staircase, and to both the left and the right were huge sets of double doors. The entire room reflected an ornate feel and richness far above what any of the current Scoobies were use to. Those that knew Cordelia Chase were pretty sure even she would be awed.

"Spike and I'll check upstairs," Buffy commanded. "Will, you and Tara go that way." She pointed to the right. "Xander, you and Anya go the other way. Anya, I know you're still mad at Xander, but try to keep him out of trouble." Buffy ignored the young man's spluttering.

Anya rolled her eyes before she sauntered off in the direction that Buffy had indicated. She ignored Xander as he trailed along behind her. Anya pushed open the big doors to reveal a sitting room. Through an archway, she noticed a library. She had started to explore the room, when out of the corner of her eye she saw her ex-fiancé go into the other book-lined room.

"There's some books in here that Giles would kill for," Xander called out. He tilted his head to read the titles along the spines. "That's interesting. What is the Slayer's handbook doing here?" He reached out to grab the book.

Anya heard a startled yelp. She turned around just in time to see Xander being pulled into darkness by three sets of pale, feminine arms. Before she could react, the dark-haired man completely disappeared as the bookcase closed behind him. 

"Crap, Buffy's gonna kill me." Anya hurried over to the bookcase. She put her ear up against it, and she heard muted sounds of pleasure on the other side. "Alexander Lavelle Harris, you better not be having orgasms without me! Your ass is mine!"

Behind the bookcase, Anya heard a muffled, "Make up your mind, woman."

"No one gets to have sex with you or torture you, except me!" Anya let her demon face come forth. She vaguely remembered Xander mentioning something about the Slayer's Handbook. She quickly searched for the book, and she carefully pulled it out. She jumped out of the way when the door swung open.

Xander stumbled out into the library, and he blinked at the brightness. "I think it was Drac's brides, but that can't be," he mumbled in a dazed voice. "Not to mention it was kinda fun in a necrophile sort of way."

"We should go back to the foyer now," Anya said as she inspected Xander for injuries. However, whatever had happened to him had no visible signs except some rumpled clothing.

"Might be a good idea." Xander shook his head to clear it. "Something's weird here. It was all so real and yet not." He grabbed Anya's arm, and he didn't even notice she was still in her vengeance demon face. Together they went back to the foyer.

Meanwhile, Willow and Tara had passed through the dining room into the kitchen. Willow had shuddered and blanched completely white when she saw the décor. "Goddess, who'd want to have frogs in the kitchen," she grumbled. "This is a crime against decorating."

"You know, I've always had a zombie phobia," Tara said softly. "I always thought it was a stupid thing to be scared of. I've never been able to watch more than a few minutes of any movie that had zombies in it."

"Not that stupid." Willow hugged her girlfriend. "I've fought zombies before." She gave a mental grimace at the thought of fighting zombies again. 

"If we run into any, you'll protect me, right?" Tara asked in a small voice.

"Sure I will, baby." Willow hugged Tara closer, while patting the vampiress' back in a soothing manner. "Although, I don't think you need to worry about zombies anymore."

"Being turned doesn't change you that much." Tara gave Willow a shy smirk. "I bet if you showed vamp Willow a few frogs she would have freaked." She had heard about the incident with the alternate dimension Willow that had come for a visit.

Before Willow could respond, the two magic users heard a scratching noise. They both looked around the room until Tara realized that the sound was coming from a door that might lead to a basement. Willow carefully went to the door to open it. When the door swung open, a dark-skinned woman popped out. 

She spoke in a raspy voice, "Soon all of you will be like me." She trembled as her flesh became ash-colored, and her eyes glazed over. "And, then who will lock you up in a cellar?"

Tara whimpered in terror. It was a zombie! It was her worst fear in the flesh. She closed her eyes tight, and she started to chant a protection spell. 

Willow took one look at her frightened girlfriend, and she turned to push the zombie-like woman down the basement stairs. She slammed the door shut, and with a wave of her hand, she magically locked the creature in. Then, she rushed to Tara's side.

"I-I don't like it in here," Tara whispered. "Let's go back to the foyer and wait for the others." She was happy when Willow quickly agreed, and the two women left the kitchen behind.

Upstairs, Spike and Buffy checked for unlocked doors, but they weren't having much luck. Both the Slayer and her vampire had their senses on high alert. The further they walked along the hallway the tinglier their sixth senses became until Spike finally nodded towards the door at the end of the hallway. Buffy returned his nod, and they moved with great caution towards their target. Spike grabbed the doorknob, turned it, and he gave a small smirk when it clicked open. He gave the door a small push.

Buffy stepped into the room, her weapon at the ready in her hand. A huge bed dominated the room, but that wasn't what caught the Slayer's attention. It was the paintings hanging on the wall on either side of the bed. Buffy reached behind her to grab Spike's hand.

"What's wrong, Slayer?" Spike followed Buffy into the room. He found himself almost speechless when he saw the paintings for himself.

"That's us," Buffy whispered. "How can that be us?" She stared at the two people that looked so much like the vampire and herself. They were dressed in old-fashioned clothes and both had darker hair, but the resemblance was remarkable.

"You didn't think it was odd that the house was built by _William_ for _Elizabeth_?" Spike asked. He walked past Buffy to study 'his' portrait. "Wouldn't be the Hellmouth otherwise."

"Do you think it's important?" Buffy stood behind the vampire.

"We'll have to look into it later." Spike turned to look at Buffy. Behind her, he caught a glimpse of movement from behind the open door. "Who's there," he growled.

"What?" Buffy whirled around, and she stepped back against Spike when a blood-covered man stepped out of the shadows.

"William and Elizabeth," he rasped in a husky voice. "You've finally returned."

"I think you have us mistaken for someone else," Spike snarled.

"Never, my darling William," the man said. "You see, you'll see me in hell. There we will share out our centuries. You, me, and sweet, dear Elizabeth."

"I look forward to it." Spike slipped into game face. A sojourn in hell would be a vacation for him. He was quite pleased when the man stepped back in terror.

"Like I told someone else before, save me a seat!" the Slayer said in a hard, cool voice.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Downstairs the other Scoobies met up in the foyer where they told each other what had happened to them. Together they decided that they should look for Spike and Buffy. Tara and Willow went up the stairs first. Xander trailed behind the two magic users with Anya bringing up the rear.

Once upstairs, the four Scoobies found the Slayer and the vampire standing outside an open bedroom door. The two blonds appeared to be in a trance. Xander snapped his fingers in front of Buffy's face, and then he turned to the women.

"I think we found where we need to do the exorcism." The dark-haired man nodded frantically. 

"Gotcha!" Willow sat down in the middle of the hallway. She gestured for Tara to sit on one side of her and Xander on the other.

"Are we doing a séance?" Anya grumbled while she sat down between Tara and Xander. She ignored dirty look that Willow threw at her. Anya knew that the red-haired witch was just jealous.

Elsewhere, the bloodied man screamed in anger. Things weren't going how he had planned. William and Elizabeth needed to pay for abandoning him to his terrible fate. He could feel the witch's attempt to send him to hell without the Jamison's.

"No!" he growled. "I will not leave here without my revenge." He pointed his finger at Spike and Buffy. "I don't care what you've become. It's all your fault I've been caught here."

"I've never seen you before, mate," Spike replied. "I've only been here in good old Sunnyhell for five years, and I've never been in this house."

"Don't lie, William," the man said. "You and Elizabeth moved away and left me!" He stepped towards the blonds. "Changing your hair can't disguise anything."

"William and Elizabeth died over 150 years ago," Buffy replied in a firm tone. "It's time for you to move on." She turned her head to the side, and she whispered to Spike, "I think we need the others."

Spike nodded once, and he started to inch towards the door.

"They were killed in San Francisco." Buffy did her best to distract their advesary. "The only place I've died has been here in Sunnydale. I drowned the first time, but second time?" Buffy moved in the opposite direction of the door, and she flapped her hands with excitement. "Oh boy, that was a doozy."

The bloodied man grabbed at Buffy, but the blond Slayer danced out of his reach. He leapt after her with an evil glint in his eye. _Yes, Elizabeth should die first. After all, that would make William quite vulnerable,_ he thought to himself.

"Can we think things over, dude?" Buffy asked. She danced out of the man's reach again.

"You've had your whole _fucking life_ to think things over. What's a few more minutes gonna do you now?" The man advanced on Buffy. He abruptly screamed when the witch's power started to pull him apart. "No, you witch bitch. I will not go. You're not strong enough to do that to me."

"She pulled me out of heaven." Buffy realized that Willow was doing the exorcism somewhere in the house. She brushed past the man to join Spike by the door. "I think she's pretty powerful."

The man screamed again when the other ghostly occupants of the house appeared in the room. The zombie woman and the three female vampires shimmered until their appearances changed into four young girls. They hissed at the man as they circled him. He screamed one last time before his particles dispersed into nothingness.

The four girls turned to Spike and Buffy, thanked them, and they too disappeared. The Slayer and her vampire found themselves standing outside the bedroom. They could hear Willow chanting behind them.

"What the bloody hell just happened?" Spike snapped when he realized that whatever had happened in the bedroom hadn't been real.

"You're back," Tara cried out. She leapt to her feet, and she hugged Spike. She had been a little worried for a bit when it had seemed like the exorcism wasn't going to work.

"Take more than a haunted house to get rid of me, pet." Spike patted Tara's shoulder. "Now don't cry. You'll mess up your make-up before your party."

"I'm glad that's over," Buffy said with a sigh. "We kinda won, don't you think?"

"No singing," Xander and Anya cried out together when they recognized some of what Buffy had said.

"What?" Buffy gave her two friends a strange look. Then, it hit her what they were talking about. She gave them an innocent look. "But why not? _I touch the fire and it freezes me..._ " Buffy burst into giggles when the others looked at her in horror.

"Did we get all the bad guys?" Willow asked.

"Guess so." Spike shrugged. He smiled down at Tara. "What do you think?"

Tara nodded at the vampire. She pulled away from him now that she was sure he was safe. She went to help her girlfriend up from the floor.

"Time for us to negotiate our orgasm times, Xander." Anya turned to leave, and she grabbed Xander's arm. She dragged him off, leaving the other Scoobies behind.

Xander turned back to say good-bye, but the farewell died in his throat when he saw Buffy fling her arms around Spike. Before he could utter a word, Anya pinched his arm. Xander turned to look at the vengeance demon.

"Don't say a word, Harris," Anya said. "Or, you'll be home drinking your whiskey instead of having sex."

"But..."

"No buts!" Anya dragged the dark-haired man down the stairs. Then, she changed her mind, and she transported the two of them to Xander's apartment.

Spike, Buffy, Tara, and Willow went downstairs, left the house, and locked the door behind them. On the porch they were again approached by the dark-haired Dru-like woman.

"Thank you," she whispered. "I can rest now, but I have one last warning. From beneath you, it devours." She pointed to the ground under her feet before she disappeared.

The four friends looked at each other as they wondered what the ghostly woman meant. The night had left many unanswered questions.

Why was there no vamp barrier on a house that clearly had an owner?

How were Spike and Buffy connected to William and Elizabeth Jamison?

What the heck did 'From beneath you, it devours' mean?

How would Xander get his car home?

These questions would have to wait because now? IT WAS PARTY TIME!

THE END


End file.
